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NHL Picks

NHL Picks: Bet Stars -140 To Get Back On Track vs. Predators

The Predators come in off a hard fought 4-3 loss to the Blues, but they have still won three of their last five games, while the Stars are off a rather bad 6-3 road loss to the Blue Jackets. Dallas has taken 22 of the last 30 in the series.

Comeback Falls Just Short vs. the Blues
The Nashville Predators nearly beat the NHL odds and came up with a big comeback win vs. the Blues on Tuesday night, but it was not meant to be. The Blues Grabbed a 3-1 lead in the third period, before Nashville got goals from Shea Weber and Colin Wilson in the least four minutes of regulation to tie the game and send it to OT, before St Louis got a goal from Alexander Steen to win the game. For Weber it was his 11th goal of the year, while Wilson’s was his 3rd. Also scoring for the Preds in the loss was Mattias Ekholm, who scored a shorthanded goal for his 3rd score of the year.

Taking the loss for the Preds was Carter Hutton, who is now 3-2 with a 2.95 GA on the year. Pekka Rinne should be back in goal for this one and he is 15-16 with a 2.38 GAA on the year, including 3-9 with a 2.91 GAA on the road, while vs the Stars he has gone 10-7 with a 2.64 GAA in his career. The Preds come in at 15th in the league in scoring at 2.6 gpg, while converting on 21.1% of their power play chances, which is 6th in the league. On defense they are 15th in the league in goals allowed, giving up 2.6 gpg, while ranking 28th in penalty kill (76.6%).

Stars Take Bad Road Loss to Columbus
The Dallas Stars have not had many embarrassing moments this year, but they did in Tuesday night’s 6-3 road loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, who have many major injury woes in goal right now. The Stars did put up three goals in the game, but the combination of Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi combined to allow five goals in the game. Lehtonen got the start, but allowed three goals in the first period before getting pulled in favor of Niemi, who allowed the final two goals. Niemi should be back in goal for this one and is 10-2 with a 2.14 GAA at home, while vs the Preds he is 8-7 with a 2.00 GAA in his career.

Scoring for Dallas in the loss was Colton Sceviour (4th), Tyler Seguin (21st) and Patrick Sharp (14th). Dallas has been a powerful offensive team this year as they come in ranked 1st in scoring at 3.4 gpg, 1st in shots per game at 34.4 spg, while converting on 23.6% of their power play chances, which is 3rd in the league. If anything holds them back this year it may be on the defensive end of the ice where they are 13th in goals allowed, giving up 2.5 gpg, while allowing teams to convert on 19.3% of their power play chances, which is 15th in the league.

Trends
Nashville is:

3-10 in their last 13 in the fourth game of a 4-in-6 situation

1-8 in their last nine in the third game of a 3-in-4 situation

Dallas is:

7-0 in their last seven games following a loss of 3 or more goals

20-7 in their last 27 home games

Betting Analysis
The Stars were embarrassed in their last game and they have been excellent off a loss of three or more goals. The Stars have also been excellent at home this year and the Preds come in a tired team as they have played a lot of hockey of late and they have not been good in that situation. This is just a bad spot for the Preds as they are tired and taking on an angry Dallas squad that is clearly the best team in the West for NHL picks.